Me and my coworker are on graveyard and its slow. So we spend part of our free time creating Blends. Kind of like a Tea Mixologist. We wanted to know what people add to their teas while brewing or after brewing. The first things to come to my mind is:

I just swirl my finger around in it a few times, and that sweetens it perfectly.

Actually, I have lost my taste for any cream or additives other than an occasional bit of white sugar or german rock sugar... sometimes added directly to the brewing infusion, but usually added to my cup after the brew is done.

kymidwife wrote:I just swirl my finger around in it a few times, and that sweetens it perfectly.

Nice.

Sometimes I'll add some fresh spearmint or chocolate mint leaves and a bit of rock sugar to my gunpowder green. Also on rare occasion I've been known to add a stamen or two of saffron to a pot of Assam. Thats about it. 99% of the time I like it nekked.

My favorite things to add to tea are cinnamon sticks, fresh sliced ginger, almond milk, and honey though generally not all at the same time. I find that a cinnamon stick can spruce up a relatively bland tea to give it a bit of a zing or can add a bit of spice to give a good tea for a different flavor. My personal favorites to add a cinnamon stick to are Adagio's Peach Oolong and Wuyi Ensemble. Ginger can be used in the same manner though I tend to make a blend of ginger bits and a few other other herbs more often than mixing it with tea unless I attempt to make my own chai. For me, almond milk tastes better than soy milk so I use that in some teas, especially flavored ones, to bring out the flavors. Adagio's Valentines generally gets a splash of almond milk whenever I brew it. Honey gets used when the tea needs to be a little bit sweeter.

I just bought some Whipping cream and some 1/2 and 1/2 to try them out. The almond milk sounds interesting by itself.

Still my favorate thing is to overbrew a black tea so its rich but a little bitter. Then stick a chocolate in my mouth and sip the hot tea. The chocolate melts as you drink the tea giving you the 'cream' taste along with the sweet chocolate. Well for Milk-Chocolate anyway.

Added after brewing: Rum, Irish whiskey, cream straight from the cow, Godiva's chocolate, unpasturized honey from local hives, turbinado sugar, maple sugar, eggnog mixed in the cup at a one to one ratio of eggnog to prepared black tea, cinnamon heart candies, hard lemon candy - not all of the additives at once, of course.

I usually take my tea without any milk or sugar, but if it's black tea or an earl grey, then I usually add a teaspoon or two of milk to help smooth it out. I also find that if I have a flavoured tea and I'm not getting the flavours I expect out of it, then I add a touch of milk. The milk helps me decipher the different flavours.

While brewing, I have lots of things I like to add to my tea. With some oolongs I add just a touch of Jasmine to give it a more floral touch (but it really all depends on the oolong). As for other additives, I usually just add them whenever the mood strikes me. Here are a list of the additives I use regularly:

I've also just gotten a sample of Calendula peddles from my local tea house to try. I'm a big fan of floral teas, so I'm always looking for different types of flowers and petals to use. I adored chrysanthenum tea when I first tried it in Calgary, but I just can seem to find it out here in Nova Scotia. I've got a chrysanthenum plant, but it's bright pink, and (I don't think) of the edible kind.

Other than non traditional steeping liquids, the only thing I add to tea is hot chocolate mix or very rarely brown or sugar in the raw. Maple syrup in my maple green would be wonderful. I think it's fine as is, but I just may have to try that.